


Break Loose

by StarRoseColors



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: AU, Audrey is Henry's Daughter, Gen, Inspired by Animaniacs, Joey is obsessed with Henry, Mentioned Unrequited Love, Past Relationship(s), Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:35:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27926116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarRoseColors/pseuds/StarRoseColors
Summary: Henry stayed to push a little bit harder. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t broken hearts.
Kudos: 6





	Break Loose

**Author's Note:**

> I take prompts over at starrosefics on Tumblr!
> 
> Here's the take that inspired this: https://tiny-smallest.tumblr.com/post/635881879936106496/fresh-off-thanksgiving-dinner-heres-my-hot

Henry Stein had been a good man.

That was according to everyone who had known him. “He kept pushing me onto the right path.” Uncle Joey said when she asked. “He kept pushing me and pushing me and we got the studio to here.”

Joey Drew wasn’t a good man, according to everyone else. He was obsessed with her father, Tom Connor told Audrey, the only person to give it to her straight. That was why he claimed they were practically soulmates and why her father’s name tattooed on his wrist.

Henry Stein had also made cartoons before he died. He and Joey had opened Drew Studios together. It started from a small building to the sprawling complex Audrey Stein had grown up around. She’d learn to talk with off-duty voice actors and had played games in the lot, under the shadow of the original studio building.

That building was haunted, people claimed.

The doors and windows were boarded up. But people claimed to hear thumping and pounding against the front door, hard enough that it shuddered, or jazzy music leaked out. On Joey’s orders, nobody was allowed to get close to it. Especially not Audrey.

Audrey had never met her father, except in the little pictures her mother had before she died too and his names in the credits of Alice Angel. He was cartoon magic although everyone told her he had been flesh and blood once. It was always with a sad, hopeful smile.

They smiled like that because she was supposed to become what Henry was when the time came. Her fate had been sealed the first time she made her own original character and had shown her mother. That drawing had been stolen from the fridge when Linda Stein passed and now hung proudly in Joey’s office.

Audrey wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

She didn’t have to be, everyone told her. But they still looked hopeful. And a little afraid.

Well, Audrey supposed she had worse problems at the moment.

Mainly, whatever had been trapped in the old studio had gotten free.

It was her twenty-first birthday, the day Drew Studios would be handed to her. An announcement was playing over the studio- it was her idea to announce Henry Stein’s memorial service before her birthday party. To make sure everyone knew to dress up nice and come pay their respects.

This wasn’t supposed to be happening. The door to the old studio looked like a massive gash, split open from the inside. Audrey stood a few feet away, staring at it with wide eyes. There was a reminder scrawled on her hand to pick up Uncle Joey from his apartment. There was a stain on her dress from her early morning sketching. She hesitantly took a step closer.

Another.

Another.

She heard huffing and puffing and glanced behind her to see Tom and Allison Connor. The former opened his mouth and closed it. Audrey took the last step and reached out, gripping the old boards with a trembling hand. She could barely see a thing inside the hallway, but she could see the tally marks, stretching as far as she could see. Distantly, she could hear Allison say “It can’t be…” From far away, the announcement played.

This wasn’t how the story was supposed to go.

Because…

Because things were gonna get funny.


End file.
